Israel is the New Jew

Canada's former prime minister notes that contemporary anti-Semitism has added the Jewish state to its list of targets.

I was born in Baie Comeau, Quebec in 1939, the year the Nazis marched and the Allies responded. My only recollections of the war are scenes of my dad marching proudly with fellow militia members, children's whispers of German submarines lurking off our shores and my electrician father telling of the horrors of Hitler and why he had to be crushed if civilization were to be saved. My sisters and I understood very little of the unspeakable reality he sought to describe.

There were no Jews in Baie Comeau. It was not until I entered law school at Université Laval in Quebec City in 1960 that I really came to know Jews. I had two Jewish classmates, Michael Kastner and Israel (Sonny) Mass, one from a wealthy family and one working class like me. We became friends and remain so to this day. I learned about the tiny but impressive Jewish community there, but little of its history and challenges in Canada. It was when I moved to Montreal to practice law in 1964 that I first came into contact with a large Jewish community, which ignited my interest in and support of the Jews and Israel.

By this time, the horrors of the Holocaust and the systematic persecution of Jews was fully documented. Why, I asked myself, would such evil be visited upon anyone, and specifically the families of this vibrant community I was getting to know?

Jews have made a powerful economic, cultural and political contribution to Canadian life.

The Jews of Montreal were remarkable. Families were close, values were taught, education was revered, work was honored and success was expected. How could it be, I often wondered, that the progenitors of people demonstrably making such a powerful contribution to the economic, cultural and political life of Montreal and Canada were reviled over centuries and decimated in a six-year period, beginning in the year of my birth? Thus began my first serious reflections on, and encounters with, anti-Semitism.

Following the Holocaust, the cry of "never again" became both affirmation and promise. We expected that humanity would forswear anti-Semitism forever. The founding of the state of Israel in 1948 reinforced this hope. Unfortunately, today, Jewish communities and the world's only Jewish state globally confront this re-emergent evil.

This latest anti-Semitism did not surface suddenly, in a vacuum. It forms part of a historical continuum that was only briefly interrupted, if at all, following the Second World War. Where did it all come from, what makes it so resistant to suppression – and will it ever end?

It all begins, I think, in that transitional period from BCE to CE, a time with a variety of faiths vying for attention. This came abruptly to a halt in 70 CE. The destruction by the Romans of Jerusalem's Second Jewish Temple was the pivotal event of that era. Only Christianity and Judaism survived the catastrophe. Originally, the people who followed Jesus considered themselves Jews. Once a Christian Church evolved, however, it took up an antagonistic position towards Judaism and its practitioners.

Jews, first and foremost, were branded with the most devastating of charges – Deicide. They were accused of the stubborn refusal to accept Christ's Godhead and His sacrifice. They were pictured as consumed with a detestation of Christianity and defilers of its rituals and symbols, the agents of Satan and the future allies if not the progenitors of the Antichrist, their ultimate aim to destroy the one true faith.

We can well imagine how ordinary men and women would have felt about Jews as a result. Individuals in the medieval world were overcome by fear of a world where so little was understood. Demons lurked unseen, and therefore beyond retribution. There was, however, one visible demon against whom one could retaliate – the Jew.

It was the Jew who was said to have poisoned the wells and who was responsible for the Black Death. The disappearance of children, in what has become known as the "Blood Libel," was readily and falsely blamed on alleged Jewish murderers who required the blood of Christian children for nefarious rituals. All this infected countless Christians with the soul-devouring virus of Jew-hatred.

The founding of the Inquisition in 15th-century Spain fully effected the transition from religious to racial anti-Semitism. The issue in Christian-Jewish relations was no longer God but genes.

The Nazis, with their emphasis on racial and ideological purity, were the natural inheritors of those who for two millennia have been centrally motivated by anti-Semitism. Nothing captures better the anti-Semite's single-mindedness than the account of Hitler, just prior to his suicide as the Third Reich lay in ruins, calling on Germans to maintain the "struggle against the Jews, the eternal poisoners of the world."

Contemporary anti-Semitism has added the state of Israel to its list of targets, to deny the Jewish state its rightful place among the community of nations. Israel has become the new Jew.

Canadians talk proudly of our tolerance and fair-mindedness. Often a tone of moral superiority insinuates itself into our national discourse. But these virtues are of fairly recent vintage – we have little to be smug about. In 1933, Toronto witnessed the Christie Pits riot – anti-Semites terrorized a Jewish baseball team in a street battle that went on all night.

The next year in Montreal all the interns at Notre-Dame Hospital went on strike to protest the hiring of a Jew who had graduated first in his class at l'Université de Montréal. This man was forced to resign because, as Le Devoir reported, Catholic patients would find it "repugnant" to be treated or touched by a Jewish doctor.

In 1938, the Canadian Jewish Congress decided not to publish a study of the status of Jews in English Canada because the findings were so profoundly unsettling.

Overt anti-Semitism was not limited to minor players in Canadian society. On Feb. 10, 1937, prime minister Mackenzie King met an elderly Russian immigrant who related that he had built a furniture and clothing business on Rideau and Banks Streets, had three sons and a daughter and was now retired – a true Canadian success story. King recorded in his diary: "The only unfortunate part... is that the Jews having acquired foothold... it will not be long before this part of Ottawa will become more or less possessed by them."

Is it any wonder then that Canada was slammed shut to Jewish immigrants during the war?

A few months later, King visited Germany to meet Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and recorded: "My sizing up... was that he is really one who truly loves his fellow man... There was a liquid quality about (his eyes) which indicates keen perception and profound sympathy. Calm, composed, and one could see how particularly humble folk would have come to have profound love for the man. As I talked with him I could not but think of Joan of Arc. He is distinctly a mystic."

The following day, our PM had lunch with the Nazi foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath, who "admitted that they had taken some pretty rough steps... but the truth was the country was going to pieces ... He said to me that I would have loathed living in Berlin with the Jews, and the way in which they had increased their numbers in the city, and were taking possession of its more important part. He said there was no pleasure in going to a theatre which was filled with them. Many of them were very coarse and vulgar and assertive. They were getting control of all the business, the finance, and... it was necessary to get them out to have the Germans really control their own city and affairs."

And how did Canada's prime minister react to these diabolically racist and extremely ominous comments by one of the most powerful leaders of the Third Reich?

"I wrote a letter of some length by hand to von Neurath whom I like exceedingly. He is, if there ever was one, a genuinely kind, good man."

The prime minister sets both the agenda and the tone in Ottawa. Is it any wonder then that Canada was slammed shut to Jewish immigrants before and during the war? Or that, when asked how many Jews would be allowed into Canada, a senior immigration official famously replied: "None is too many"? The government even refused entry to a shipload of desperate Jews, who instead sailed back to Europe on a voyage of the damned.

This was a moment when Canada's heritage and promise were betrayed. To this day, I cannot watch footage of the faces of Jewish mothers, fathers and children consigned to the gas chambers without, as a Canadian, feeling a great sense of sorrow, loss and guilt. Because of Ottawa's abdication of moral leadership, countless Jews perished in Hitler's death camps and we as a country were deprived of them, their children and the glory of their lives.

Anti-Semitism is born in ignorance and nurtured in envy.

Anti-Semitism is born in ignorance and nurtured in envy. It is the stepchild of delusion and evil. The ongoing success of Canada's Jewish community is consequently often misunderstood, misrepresented and misreported. The rise in the number of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in Canada and the pathetic but startling ravings of David Ahenakew testify to the intractability of the problem, and the constant need for vigilance, consistency and strength in dealing with the entire sweep of anti-Semitism.

In Dante's Inferno it is noted that "the hottest place in hell is reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis, strive to maintain their neutrality." Prime ministers are not exempt from this, and because I served in that office for almost nine years, let me briefly recount some personal experiences:

In 1967, while a very young lawyer, I made my first (modest) contribution to the defense of Israel. It was a moment of extreme peril for Israel and I simply wanted to show my support.

In 1976, at a Quebec Economic Summit chaired by premier Lévesque, I was astonished to hear Yvon Charbonneau, then president of la Corporation des Enseignants du Québec (now an MP from Montreal) denounce Sam Steinberg and other Montreal Jewish leaders in a decidedly racist manner. I demanded the microphone and denounced Charbonneau and his views on the spot.

When the government in 1984 invited the Palestine Liberation Organization's United Nations representative to be heard in Parliament (when the PLO was officially known as a terrorist organization), as leader of the Opposition I summoned the Israeli ambassador so that we could jointly excoriate both the government and the PLO.

My government appointed the Deschenes Commission of Inquiry on Nazi War Criminals who had escaped to Canada, because as I said then, "our citizenship shall not be dishonoured by those who preach hatred" and "Canada shall never become a safe haven for such persons." Much more could have been achieved had such a commission been appointed decades earlier when the evidence was fresher and the suspects much younger. But Ottawa had refused to act.

I appointed Jews to my Cabinet and to the highest reaches of the public service and judiciary. I appointed three Jews in succession – Stanley Hartt, Norman Spector and Hugh Segal – as chief of staff, perhaps the most sensitive and influential unelected position in Ottawa.

I appointed Norman Spector as Canada's first Jewish ambassador to Israel, smashing the odious myth of dual loyalties that had prevented Jews from serving in that position for 40 years.

I invited Chaim Herzog to make the first official state visit to Canada by a president of Israel. On June 27, 1989, I had the high honor of introducing president Herzog as he spoke to a joint session of the House of Commons and Senate.

Senator David Croll was an outstanding member of the Jewish community from Ontario, elected to Parliament as a Liberal in 1945. He never made Cabinet for no apparent reason other than his Jewishness. I elevated this remarkable Canadian to the Privy Council on his 90th birthday.

My view of Canada's foreign policy in the Middle East was articulated as leader of the Opposition when I said that Canada under my government would treat fairly with the moderate nations in the region such as Jordan, but that, first and foremost, Canada would make an "unshakable commitment" to the integrity and well-being of Israel. And for nine years we did precisely that.

We committed Canada to participate in the Gulf War in 1991. The many reasons included the security of Israel. History will record we did the right thing.

In 1993, I was the first foreign leader invited to meet with president Clinton. At a joint news conference we were asked about the peace process. I said: "I'm always very concerned when people start to lecture Israel on the manner in which it looks after its own internal security, because for very important historical reasons, Israel is of course better qualified than most to make determinations about its own well-being." I believe that to be true today.

Canada is a marvelous country that has provided sanctuary and opportunity to millions, but many groups of immigrants have suffered injustice and discrimination. The story of the Jews, however, remains markedly different. The Holocaust saw to that. So when I ceased being prime minister, I continued publicly denouncing those that showed hostility or malice to Israel or the Jews. History has taught us what happens when we don't.

This does not mean that Israel should be immune from criticism. One can strongly disagree with policies of the government of Israel without being called an anti-Semite. Nor does it mean that a strong defense of Israel's right to security precludes the acceptance of a Palestinian state whose citizens come to know the benefits of health care, educational excellence, economic opportunities and growing prosperity similar to those available in Israel. This should be the objective of all who believe in justice.

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Visitor Comments: 18

(18)
Beverly Kurtin,
November 11, 2013 11:27 PM

Anti-Semitism in Canada

My father-in-law was forced to change his last name because he could not get into college with a Jewish last name. They had a quota just as they had in the United States. The U.S. quota system for Jews was not killed until the passing of the civil rights laws.

(17)
Anonymous,
January 8, 2013 5:11 PM

Most impressive article Mr. Mulroney! It is truly refreshing to read the comments of a man who actually looks at the Jewish situation from a different perspective; the one of Reason and Intelligence. Unfortunately not too many statesmen such as yourself do the same. At the very least it is fair to say that Jews have always contributed to the country they live in with integrity, commitment, hard work and most importantly without violence… Thank you for sharing your thoughts Mr. Mulroney.

(16)
Robert Twic,
July 29, 2012 8:34 PM

@ least one person knows what's what re Canada's attitude to Jews

Mr. Mulroney seems to know much about how Jews were treated by Canada prior-/during- WW II. His courage in stating them and facing down anti-semites shud' b a model for all Cdns.

(15)
Barbara Shilo,
October 17, 2011 12:58 AM

Thank you for a most fair article about Israel and antisemitism.

Dear PM Brian Mulroney,
This is an incredibly fair and truthful and courageous reporting of Israel and the Jewish question of Canada.
Thank you,
Barbara Shilo

(14)
shimi,
June 19, 2011 9:23 PM

very well put together

we need more freinds like you around the world to ballance the bigotry and misrepresentation of israel around the world

(13)
Anonymous,
November 28, 2003 12:00 AM

Mr. Mulroney,
As I was researching a topic for my university class, I came upon your article. I have been researching the history of the Jews. It was very interesting to read your article along with the information that I have acquired about the Jews in the history of Spain and the Muslim world in the time span which started in 711. Seems as though nothing has changed for the Jews in history, even though in some parts of history, they flourished and made great contributions to society in many areas. My question is if they got along so well with the muslims in Spain beginning in the eighth century....what has happened??? There was still some discrimination during those times but the muslims recognized the Jews to be scholarly,intelligent in commerce and trade,and much more.....what caused that to change??? I am not Jewish, nor do I live in a city where there are many Jews, but I strongly hate what is going on in Israel and Palestine. It is so difficult to know who is right and who is wrong....after years of discord between those two groups of people.

(12)
Anonymous,
February 22, 2003 12:00 AM

Mr. Mulroney,
I cannot thank you enough. We need more non-Jews like you who are courageous enough to display their support for the Jewish Nation to the outside world. Hopefully, your acts of courage combating anti-Semitic acts will inspire more Gentiles to take a stand as well.
Mr. Sheridan, I just want to say that it's always important to keep in mind that G-d is part of the picture, too. Even though we don't understand it right now, G-d has a plan for what is to come in the future, and there are reasons for all the chaos occurring nowadays, even though we don't know what the reason is right now. Please
G-d, in the future, the current chaos will become clear to us, and we will see that there was a reason behind it. According to natural laws, your predictions could be possible. But we should not make presumptions because
G-d is in control. Right now with all the chaos, we need to put our trust in Him and pray.

(11)
Gary Higley,
February 22, 2003 12:00 AM

response

I applaud everything Mr. Mulroney says, except I believe that a Palestinian state would simply be a launching pad for more extensive terrorism. Otherwise, Mr. Mulronet is truly a voice of reason amidst a cacophany of foolish and unreasonable people.

(10)
Anonymous,
February 21, 2003 12:00 AM

Great up to the last paragraph...

The quote about antisemitism hits the nail on the head, so to speak, but, after all we are reading and experiencing as Jews, I cannot help but have a terrible feeling of impending doom-when it comes to the idea of a Palestinian State. As a Jew, I do not dislike 'Palestinans/former rebel Jordanians", but I feel a deep distrust about the motives, since they have had chances and chances, and the continuing response is terrorism. I am certain there are many good-hearted and well-intentioned former Jordanians, but I do not feel that I have to be politically correct anymore! I must look with both eyes and an awake brain and a full heart and look into their eyes and say, NEVER, NEVER AGAIN.

(9)
albert sheridan,
February 20, 2003 12:00 AM

I was not aware that the hostility was so strong

By 2050 I think that the fundametalist Islamics will have taken over the whole of Europe, Britain, France in particular. I

If we do not stop them now, later will be too late

(8)
+Shirley,
February 19, 2003 12:00 AM

Good to hear.

I am a Canadian , and it was sure good to hear of a Canadian Leader who stands up for Israel.

I love the Jewish people.

(7)
Yoka Bazilewich,
February 18, 2003 12:00 AM

Thanks

Thanks Mr. Brian Mulroney.
I really liked the piece you wrote and you brought back many memories. I don't agree on a Palestinian State. You cannot have peace with people who raise their children to hate as soon as they are born. The lies keep coming about the Jewish people. I admire you for standing up to what you believe. It is at the moment more and more unpopular to be on the side of the Jewish people. But I thanks you
Sincerely Yoka Bazilewich

(6)
David Merrill,
February 17, 2003 12:00 AM

in response to Lea Krazniker's comment...

You touch a nerve at the heart of the controversy and I feel more discussion is invited. "Although it is a given fact that Esau hates Jacob..." It is a given fact (if you are citing the Holy Bible) that there was genuine reconciliation between Esau and Jacob; Genesis 33:4. If the common sentiment about inherent hatred is based on subsequent actions of violence and hatred, even as recorded in Israel's own history book, are these not sentiments in vain (contrary to Biblical symbols)?

(5)
Beverly Kurtin,
February 17, 2003 12:00 AM

Palestinian State?

Mr. Mulroney's article is, to me, an accurate reflection on Canada's history of Jew-hatred. However, his ultimate statement concerning a Palestinian State ignores the fact that there can be no such entity until the Arabs foreswear their aim of Israel's demise. My heart is heavy as I fear that there will be ice skating in hades before that will happen.

(4)
Barbara Gromb,
February 17, 2003 12:00 AM

Thank You.

I wish there were more people like you on this planet. The world would be a much better place. Thank you.

(3)
Ray Walker,
February 17, 2003 12:00 AM

A voice crying in the wilderness

That's what Mulroney sounds like. If more eminent Jews, like the Presidents of Jewish organizations, would cry aloud in our global wilderness, maybe we would be heard.

(2)
Lea Krasniker,
February 16, 2003 12:00 AM

true, but...

A very good article, but the REAL reason there exixt anti-semitism is because the Jews do not all together fulfill their task in the order of the cosmos as G'd demands from them. Although it is a given fact that Esau hates Jacob, the reason is deeper.
Shalom from Jerusalem,
Lea

(1)
Howard,
February 16, 2003 12:00 AM

What a solid good hearted friend

Thank you Mr. Prime Minister for your righteous and solid support through the years.

I just got married and have an important question: Can we eat rice on Passover? My wife grew up eating it, and I did not. Is this just a matter of family tradition?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

The Torah instructs a Jew not to eat (or even possess) chametz all seven days of Passover (Exodus 13:3). "Chametz" is defined as any of the five grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye) that came into contact with water for more than 18 minutes. Chametz is a serious Torah prohibition, and for that reason we take extra protective measures on Passover to prevent any mistakes.

Hence the category of food called "kitniyot" (sometimes referred to generically as "legumes"). This includes rice, corn, soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, mustard, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Even though kitniyot cannot technically become chametz, Ashkenazi Jews do not eat them on Passover. Why?

Products of kitniyot often appear like chametz products. For example, it can be hard to distinguish between rice flour (kitniyot) and wheat flour (chametz). Also, chametz grains may become inadvertently mixed together with kitniyot. Therefore, to prevent confusion, all kitniyot were prohibited.

In Jewish law, there is one important distinction between chametz and kitniyot. During Passover, it is forbidden to even have chametz in one's possession (hence the custom of "selling chametz"). Whereas it is permitted to own kitniyot during Passover and even to use it - not for eating - but for things like baby powder which contains cornstarch. Similarly, someone who is sick is allowed to take medicine containing kitniyot.

What about derivatives of kitniyot - e.g. corn oil, peanut oil, etc? This is a difference of opinion. Many will use kitniyot-based oils on Passover, while others are strict and only use olive or walnut oil.

Finally, there is one product called "quinoa" (pronounced "ken-wah" or "kin-o-ah") that is permitted on Passover even for Ashkenazim. Although it resembles a grain, it is technically a grass, and was never included in the prohibition against kitniyot. It is prepared like rice and has a very high protein content. (It's excellent in "cholent" stew!) In the United States and elsewhere, mainstream kosher supervision agencies certify it "Kosher for Passover" -- look for the label.

Interestingly, the Sefardi Jewish community does not have a prohibition against kitniyot. This creates the strange situation, for example, where one family could be eating rice on Passover - when their neighbors will not. So am I going to guess here that you are Ashkenazi and your wife is Sefardi. Am I right?

Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (1194-1270), known as Nachmanides, and by the acronym of his name, Ramban. Born in Spain, he was a physician by trade, but was best-known for authoring brilliant commentaries on the Bible, Talmud, and philosophy. In 1263, King James of Spain authorized a disputation (religious debate) between Nachmanides and a Jewish convert to Christianity, Pablo Christiani. Nachmanides reluctantly agreed to take part, only after being assured by the king that he would have full freedom of expression. Nachmanides won the debate, which earned the king's respect and a prize of 300 gold coins. But this incensed the Church: Nachmanides was charged with blasphemy and he was forced to flee Spain. So at age 72, Nachmanides moved to Jerusalem. He was struck by the desolation in the Holy City -- there were so few Jews that he could not even find a minyan to pray. Nachmanides immediately set about rebuilding the Jewish community. The Ramban Synagogue stands today in Jerusalem's Old City, a living testimony to his efforts.

It's easy to be intimidated by mean people. See through their mask. Underneath is an insecure and unhappy person. They are alienated from others because they are alienated from themselves.

Have compassion for them. Not pity, not condemning, not fear, but compassion. Feel for their suffering. Identify with their core humanity. You might be able to influence them for the good. You might not. Either way your compassion frees you from their destructiveness. And if you would like to help them change, compassion gives you a chance to succeed.

It is the nature of a person to be influenced by his fellows and comrades (Rambam, Hil. De'os 6:1).

We can never escape the influence of our environment. Our life-style impacts upon us and, as if by osmosis, penetrates our skin and becomes part of us.

Our environment today is thoroughly computerized. Computer intelligence is no longer a science-fiction fantasy, but an everyday occurrence. Some computers can even carry out complete interviews. The computer asks questions, receives answers, interprets these answers, and uses its newly acquired information to ask new questions.

Still, while computers may be able to think, they cannot feel. The uniqueness of human beings is therefore no longer in their intellect, but in their emotions.

We must be extremely careful not to allow ourselves to become human computers that are devoid of feelings. Our culture is in danger of losing this essential aspect of humanity, remaining only with intellect. Because we communicate so much with unfeeling computers, we are in danger of becoming disconnected from our own feelings and oblivious to the feelings of others.

As we check in at our jobs, and the computer on our desk greets us with, "Good morning, Mr. Smith. Today is Wednesday, and here is the agenda for today," let us remember that this machine may indeed be brilliant, but it cannot laugh or cry. It cannot be happy if we succeed, or sad if we fail.

Today I shall...

try to remain a human being in every way - by keeping in touch with my own feelings and being sensitive to the feelings of others.

With stories and insights,
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